The outlet has criticized other journalists and news outlets for what it portrays as secretive funding from pro-Israel sources.

By Chuck Ross, The Washington Free Beacon

The left-wing philanthropy funded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations, gave $250,000 to establish a Middle East desk at Drop Site News, an anti-Israel news startup that touts itself as a “reader-supported” purveyor of “completely independent” journalism.

Open Society Foundations said the grant, awarded last year, would help “bridge a crucial information gap in independent journalism” in the Middle East, according to its spending database.

Drop Site, founded by veteran left-wing journalists Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill in July 2024, has filled that purported gap with a steady stream of anti-Israel coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Its first major story was a series of interviews that Scahill conducted with Hamas leaders aimed at providing the “public deeper insight into [Hamas’s] decision to launch the October 7 attacks in Israel.”

“The past nine months of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza have spurred an unprecedented global awakening to the plight of the Palestinian people,” reads the opening line of Scahill’s story.

Drop Site has not disclosed funding from the Open Society Foundations, of which Soros’s son Alex took control in 2022.

In its fundraising pitches, Drop Site requests donations through Social Security Works Education Fund, an obscure nonprofit that aims to “educate the general public, media, and policy-makers about the benefits of protecting social security benefits.”

The organization serves as the “fiscal sponsor” for Drop Site, allowing donors to make tax-deductible contributions to the outlet, which does not have tax-exempt status from the IRS.

The Open Society Foundations funneled its contribution to Drop Site through the Social Security Works Education Fund, earmarked “to support establishing a Drop Site News MENA desk to to [sic] bridge a critical information gap in independent journalism.”

Drop Site has provided little coverage of Social Security, or any other domestic entitlement programs.

Instead, its bread-and-butter has been coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, from a decidedly anti-Israel viewpoint.

Grim, who has written for Politico, Huffington Post, and The Intercept, has pushed several false narratives about the war.

He peddled the debunked claim earlier this year that Israel Defense Forces massacred Palestinian civilians at a food distribution site, and he reported the false claim that White House National Security Council staffer Merav Ceren once worked for Israel’s Ministry of Defense.

The story touched off a wave of anti-Semitic attacks on Ceren, and calls from pro-Hamas groups that she be fired. The Trump administration quickly shot down the story, stating that Ceren has never worked for the ministry.

Drop Site’s Middle East desk is led by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, a reporter who works out of Egypt and New York City.

At Drop Site, Kouddous wrote a dispatch from the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.

Another Kouddous story decried the killing earlier this year of Anas Al-Sharif, an alleged Hamas fighter who worked for the news outlet Al Jazeera.

The outlet has criticized other journalists and news outlets for what it portrays as secretive funding from pro-Israel sources.

Kouddous’s most recent story alleged that 16 journalists, including 2 New York Times reporters and CNN commentator Van Jones, served as mentors in a journalism program aimed at helping Israel win its “information war.”

Jones blasted that report as “totally bogus” and said his only involvement in the program was a one-hour talk to a “handful of journalists.”

In another story, Grim and Drop Site reporter Murtaza Hussain reported that the Free Press, the website started by CBS News chief Bari Weiss, had cooperated with a “shadowy think tank tied to pro-Israel advocacy” on a series of stories about the terrorist group Hezbollah.

While Drop Site portrayed the arrangement as nefarious, the Free Press series disclosed the involvement of the think tank, the Center for Peace Communications.

Soros is just the latest liberal billionaire to bankroll the Drop Site proprietors.

Grim and Scahill worked for The Intercept, the left-leaning outlet funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar until 2022.

Grim, who recently stated that “no sane society would have billionaires,” was paid $410,000 by The Intercept last year. Scahill made $300,000, according to tax filings.

Social Security Works Education Fund, Drop Site, and the Open Society Foundations did not respond to requests for comment.

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Soros says his goal is “to prevent more winning” from US President Donald Trump and Republicans.

By Matthew Xiao, The Washington Free Beacon

Alex Soros, the heir to multibillionaire Democratic megadonor George Soros, in an interview mocked the founders of Facebook and Uber for having “really believed their own bullshit” and groaned at the mention of a climate group that his family has bankrolled for years.

Facebook and Uber founders are “a bunch of nice Jewish boys who kind of gamed the system and, ‘Oh, let’s not become doctors, lawyers; I’m helping the world by putting taxis out of business,'” Alex Soros, who is Jewish, told New York magazine as he sat in an Uber en route to a museum exhibition in New York.

Unlike Soros, who now oversees his father’s $20 billion political empire, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Uber founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp grew up in relatively ordinary households and did not inherit their fortunes.

Soros, known for his lavish lifestyle, ties to political elites, and relationship with former US secretary of state’s Hillary Clinton’s confidante Huma Abedin, took over his father’s empire in 2022 — frustrating many longtime insiders, who had expected his older, more measured half-brother to inherit the role, according to New York magazine.

George Soros is one of the biggest donors to liberal causes through his Open Society Foundations, spending more than $18 billion of his fortune on everything from soft-on-crime prosecutors to a fake news network to anti-Israel nonprofits.

When one of those groups, the environmentalist Sunrise Movement, came up during the interview, Alex Soros made a face and groaned. “What the hell did they do, by the way?” he said.

The Soros family’s Democracy PAC has donated hundreds of thousands to Sunrise Movement alone, including $250,000 during the 2020 election cycle, the Washington Free Beacon reported at the time.

Alex Soros “says his priority remains power, however, the Democrats can attain it,” New York reported. His goal, meanwhile, is “to prevent more winning” from US President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Both Soros and his father are “result-driven,” he told the magazine—”we like to win.”

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The institute has come under fire for promoting extreme causes.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Patrick Gaspard, the president of the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundations, announced Friday that he will step down from his position, fueling speculation that he is gearing up to assume a post in the Biden administration.

Gaspard will be replaced by former British UN diplomat Mark Malloch Brown.

In a statement, Gaspard explained that he is planning to re-enter the world of politics to “continue the struggle against oppression everywhere.”

“Fundamental social change doesn’t customarily occur in a revolutionary moment,” said Gaspard. “Instead, what is needed is the partnership of activists, government, and the nonprofit sector, collaborating over time and space in unity and solidarity.”

Previously, Gaspard served as the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa under the Obama administration, the executive director of the Democratic National Committee, and national political director for Obama’s 2008 campaign.

The Open Society Foundations is a network of nonprofit organizations funded by Hungarian billionaire George Soros. The institute has come under fire for promoting extreme causes.

The foundation admitted granting at least $33 million to groups including the Organization for Black Struggle and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment.

These groups supported and organized violent protests after the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown.

Soros foundations fund Adalah and I’lam, two Palestinian organizations that advocate for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

I’lam was founded by Haneen Zoabi, an Arab Israeli former Knesset member. Zoabi participated in the 2010 Gaza flotilla and was later suspended from the Knesset for remarks supporting terrorism.

In 2015, Russia banned Soros-backed foundations from operating within its territory.

A statement from Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office explained, “It was found that the activity of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and the security of the state.”

Pakistan banned Soros-affiliated foundations from operating in the country in 2017, and the organization stopped activities in Turkey in 2018.

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Soros’s organization is pulling out of Turkey after President Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of attempting to destabilize his country.

By Associated Press

The Open Society Foundations, which is funded by George Soros, is pulling out of Turkey days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of attempting to destabilize his country.

The foundation, which has backed projects to improve education, women’s rights and encourages democratic reforms, said “baseless” accusations had made it impossible for it to continue operating in Turkey.

The foundation’s Turkish chief was among 13 activists detained in Turkey this month, accused of supporting mass anti-government protests in 2013 and of links to jailed businessman, Osman Kavala.

Erdogan has accused Kavala of financing the protests and claimed the Hungarian-American Soros was behind him.

Erdogan said: “The famous Hungarian Jew Soros is behind (Kavala). This man has a lot of money that he uses to divide nations.”

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